A Dissimilatory Effect on Neighboring Syllables with Identical Onsets in the English Word Formation Processes

Abstract

This study examines derived words in English that contain two neighboring syllables with identical onsets and provides an analysis that explains the data of both prohibited and allowed non-preferred sequences of syllables. We propose a general markedness constraint that bans the non-favored consecutive syllables with the same onsets. Since the marked syllable sequence is suppressed across the morpheme boundary when followed mostly by auto-stressing suffixes, FtBin, B-Contig, and *Clash should dominate the dissimilatory onset constraint. This constraint ranking can explain the truncation of the base-final rime. However, when stress-neutral vowel-initial suffixes occur after the base-final syllable (CiVCi), newly formed consecutive syllables with identical onsets are tolerated. This type of data can be explained by ranking Parse-σ, FtBin, and B-Contig over the marked onset constraint. To account for the data where the marked adjacent syllables occur base-initially and base-medially, the general marked onset constraint should be overridden by other constraints, such as Anchor-L, *Clash, and Parse-σ. These constraints intervene with the dissimilatory onset constraint to occur, so that non-base final adjacent syllables with the same onsets are realized intact in the output. The unified constraint ranking proposed in this study accounts for various types of dissimilatory onset-derived English words.